Healthy Context-Switching in the Cult of Busy

“Hey, how are you doing?” 

“Good, I’m really busy.” 

How many interactions like that do you have in a day? Do you wince as you open up your busy calendar and see the neat column of meetings, some double- or even triple-booked? Is the work day an endless rush from room to room or zoom to zoom, barely having time to switch to the next context before the meeting is over? Are you multitasking through meetings hoping to clear out your urgent emails? Perhaps you don’t have time to do “real work” until late in the evenings? This used to be my life when I worked at startups and at Facebook. 

Meeting Hell

There are many ways to mitigate the Cult of Busy, and they are all potential experiments to try for yourself: 

  • Take an honest look at all your meetings. Do you really need to be there? Consider blowing up your calendar every 3 months by declining everything and only adding back in what is crucial. There is power in saying no. You have choice around how to spend your time. 

  • Before your calendar gets blocked up, schedule 3-hour chunks of time. At Facebook we called them focus blocks where designers would fiercely protect their maker time by pre-emptively blocking off their calendars. It worked even better when the entire team of product/eng/design agreed to honor the same focus blocks in a week. Everyone needs thinking time and a quiet space for ideas to form

There is the pragmatic reality that calendars are a wonderful tool to manage how we choose to spend our time. Consider using your calendar mindfully to prioritize what matters in each day. 

Multitasking

We’ve all read the research on multi-tasking and vaguely know that it’s bad for you, and we all still do it to some extent. It buys into the Cult of Busy, that we feel we can be more efficient and get more things done in a shorter amount of time. 

Healthy Context-Switching: The 3 Cs

The Cult of Busy and multitasking is a necessary part of life, both personal and professional. To mitigate stress and ease our brain’s executive function, consider slowing down the rapid jumping and choose to practice healthy context-switching. Healthy context-switching slows you down to focus on what’s in front of you. Focus on what’s happening now by using the 3Cs — Clearing, Centering, and Connection. 

1. Clearing

You’ve made it to your next meeting. Butt down on chair and a sigh of relief that you’re not the last person there. Yet there’s still things on your mind. Perhaps you just scanned the news and are thinking about Trump’s impeachment trial, or Brexit, or the number of people suffering from coronavirus. There’s a lot of worry and anxiety in today’s world. Or perhaps you’re wondering how your friend is dealing with his job search, or thinking about the fight with your wife last night. Slow down and ask yourself, what’s here in my mind right now? The practice of clearing acknowledges what’s present in your mind. The worries, the celebrations, the conversations. Running through these thoughts and perhaps even saying them aloud to the person in front of you, acknowledges that they exist, that they are valid. And through acknowledgement, you are able to dismiss them and move to focus on what’s important now. 

2. Centering

Take a moment to center and focus on what matters the most for the task or meeting in front of you. The meaning will be personal. Be honest with yourself about the one thing that matters to you for the next hour or several hours. For example: 

  • I come to crit (design critique meeting) to support my co-designers’ draft thinking

  • I come to crit to get inspired by the wide range of designs

  • I come to crit to practice presenting my ideas and get early feedback

  • This 1–1 with my boss is to get advice & clarity for tomorrow’s leadership review. 

  • I’m going to generate as many sketches as possible in the next hour to explore new options for why people are dropping off in the flow. 

  • This staff meeting is valuable to see the health & individual state of my team-members

Center yourself and set a focused intention for the next meeting. 

3. Connection

Connect with the person or people right in front of you. Notice if they’re multitasking & distracted with something else. Notice when they’re present. Be curious about what’s going on for them today. Consider asking about something you’d talked about earlier, either personal or work-related. Or ask them an unexpected question to trigger the connection. If this is your meeting, consider asking people to focus and put their laptops and phones away. Above all, be genuinely curious. 

  • What’s the best thing you ate this weekend? 

  • Did you do anything surprising this weekend? 

  • What have we learned this week? 

  • Is there any feedback for how this meeting series is going? 

  • What’s been most stressful today? 

  • What can I help you with right now? 

Bottom-Line

The Cult of Busy, multitasking, and context-switching between all the important things are an insidious part of professional life. Maximize your flow state and brain function by deliberately slowing down. Focus on what’s happening now by using Clearing, Centering, and Connection. 

Tutti Taygerly